Novell Authentication and PPP

From: Seth Chaiklin <sethlist pc126 psy aau dk>

Subject: Novell Authentication and PPP

Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 03:19:13 +0100

The latest discussion has been interesting and enjoyable.
It also helped me understand how I might get some
advantage from PAM, hence the following question.
First, let me explain the context, then the question(s).
Users have a username and password on a Netware 4.1 system.
There is also a dial-in linux server running pppd-2.3.5 (with the
appropriate PAM patches) on the same ethernet.
It is clearly an advantage if the linux server could use
the Netware database for authentication, because once a person is
in the Novell system, then they could automatically
have access to the PPP system, without having to create
an entry in the linux password database.
I can see there are two modules available that could
potentially provide this service: pam_nw_auth and pam_ncp.
It appears that pam_nw_auth will satisfy this requirement,
while pam_ncp requires an entry in the /etc/passwd.
But maybe pam_nw_auth's "documentation" is wrong.
Now my questions.
(1) Has anyone actually tried to do something like this,
with either of these modules? If so, any tips, gotchas,
problems to be aware of?
(2) Both these modules are built around ncpfs. Recently
Caldera made their nwclient freely available. Has anyone
tried to use these modules (or modify them) in relation
to the Caldera client?
(3) are there any opinions about the reliability of
pam_nw_auth vs. pam_ncp?
(from looking at the source code, they are built up from
pam_unix_auth, so perhaps not much difference.)
(4) Are there other modules available that should also
be considered?
(5) I realize that I just have to try it, but sometimes
it is good to have some theory before practice. In fact,
I have used pam_nw_auth successfully with login, so I
am not asking for setup details, as much as trying to
learn from the experience and wisdom of others.
Thanks,
Seth Chaiklin